Lynne Miller: Bear killing awful

Steamboat Springs  Who in their right mind would kill an innocent bear looking for food in an alley in downtown Steamboat? I am so angry about this. I hope that the authorities find whoever did it and he is charged in court. Then he should be sentenced to the same jail time, fine and community service given to Michael Vick.

the problem is the DOW won't do anything about a complaint of a bear unless it does kill your kid ...then it's too late ...I've been on jobsites where there are bears near the ski area and the owners complain about it and the DOW tells them that they can't help ...well duh ...you have to right to protect your family

Dukebets, we may not have the facts surrounding the shooting, but how's this: Colorado's make my day law will not come into effect, unless it is shown that the trash can that the bear was accessing was actually someone's house, and that is the person who shot the bear- under that law, the person you shoot needs to be inside your house (or at least fall through the front door if you shoot him on the porch). Shooting an animal on public or private property in the middle of town is illegal.

I see two possible scenarios for this:

1) person sees bear, goes inside gets gun, shoots bear. This means there is no way the person was in danger, and they shot the bear for fun. Highly illegal.

2) person sees bear, draws weapon, kills bear.

Under scenario two, it is possible that the person had a concealed weapons permit or did not. I would guess that they did not, as I doubt someone who is responsible enough to get the proper license to carry a weapon would be irresponsible enough to discharge it on an animal in a residential neighborhood- this could be a wrong assumption, but a responsible law abiding citizen who drew a legal weapon and shot the bear would have called the cops to report it and explain the threat of the bear. The simple fact that the shooter did not do this indicates to me that he/she knew they were in the wrong.

And by the way, a pit bull is a terrier.

Freerider, what were the multiple bear complaints about? Just that it was walking through the yard? Bears live here, if you don't want to see them, maybe you shouldn't. I am sure if the homeowners in question were complaining about the bear in their trash, they would have been ticketed for not handling their trash properly, which would have made it into your rant.

It is really not that hard to avoid getting mauled by a bear in this town, you two make it sound like we are constantly under attack - be careful with your trash, don't load Brittany and Quincey up with garbage and send them into an alley at night, and I think we'll all be fine.